There are many situations in the field of bulk materials handling and food processing where it is necessary to produce an ordered stream of objects from a bulk supply of such objects supplied haphazardly in non-uniform orientations. Many such applications require objects to be aligned in a single file for inspection or for supply to automated processing machinery. In some situations, it is further required to align oblong objects, such as potatoes, so that their major longitudinal axes correspond to their direction of travel. Automatic sizing and grading equipment, for example, often requires such singulation and prescribed orientation of food articles.
Cutting operations present particular difficulties with respect to vegetable feeding and singulation. Vegetable cutting devices often accept vegetables only in a single file, although they are capable of receiving such vegetables at a very high feed rate. Efficient operation of such cutting devices requires singulation, orientation, and acceleration of food articles from a bulk stream of such articles--at a feed rate which is difficult to attain with prior art devices.
Feeding potatoes to a helical potato cutter is a specific example of a situation requiring a high-speed, singulated, and oriented stream of articles. One type of helical potato cutter is disclosed in a U.S. patent application by Marc A. Frey et al., filed on Mar. 23, 1993, entitled "Vegetable Cutting System." This type of potato cutter has a vertical entrance aperture into which potatoes must be flung or projected in a downward direction. The potatoes must be oriented as they enter the cutter so that their major longitudinal axes correspond to their direction of travel. This orientation is required not only because of the restricted size of the cutter entrance aperture, but also to ensure that potato strips or coils produced by the cutter will each be of maximum length.
Previous devices for feeding food articles in a single file to cutters and other devices have included belt conveyors, vibratory conveyors, and hydraulic delivery systems. These devices have been used with varying degrees of success.
The invention described below provides singulated and properly oriented food articles at a consistently high feed rate for supply to a device such as disclosed by Frey et al. Furthermore, the invention can be configured to discharge food articles at various angles from horizontal, such as might be required by a variety of downstream processing equipment. The preferred embodiment of the invention is simple, reliable, and easy to clean and maintain, providing significant advantages over prior article feed devices.